The DUB package manager

Nick Sabalausky SeeWebsiteToContactMe at semitwist.com
Thu Feb 21 03:22:28 PST 2013


On Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:53:23 +0100
"John Colvin" <john.loughran.colvin at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wednesday, 20 February 2013 at 11:12:30 UTC, Sönke Ludwig 
> wrote:
> > Since the discussion about yes or no regarding OS specific 
> > package
> > managers still goes on, IMO there is one argument that is far 
> > more
> > important than all technical or aesthetic aspects.
> >
> > A language specific, but cross-platform, package manager makes
> > publishing and using published libraries a lot simpler for 
> > /developers/.
> > And since D wants to grow, it's extremely important to provide 
> > new
> > developers with the most comfortable and efficient development
> > experience, so that they also stay and get productive after the 
> > first looks.
> >
> > I think that package managers in Ruby, Python, 
> > JavaScript/node.js were
> > crucial in their growth. Without them, they probably wouldn't 
> > have that
> > rich ecosystem of libraries and tools that is available today 
> > and is one
> > of the key reasons why so many people choose those languages.
> >
> > Implementing an export function to turn a D package into a 
> > variety of
> > platform specific package formats is a possible option that 
> > could close
> > the gap and make installing applications also comfortable for 
> > the end user.
> 

+1

> I agree. In the end, you need developers before you can have 
> end-users!
> 

Developers, developers, developers! (and giant arm-pit stains...)

> Also, developers often want to micro-manage the experience the 
> end-user gets,

I really hate that. That's exactly the reason we have so much crapware
(absolutely flooded with it on Windows) that completely disregards any
and all of system settings and convention standards for which they have
enough resources to badly reinvent.

> 
> Look at python. Python has good package management, but it only 
> gets used by developers. No end-user reaches for pip/easy_install 
> to get the dependencies for Blender and no-one will, it all gets 
> taken care of by OS-level package managers or is bundled with the 
> installer. The end user of a piece of software should never have 
> to know what language it is written in or have to get in involved 
> in that languages own ecosystem.
> 

In my admittedly limited experience, pip was almost completely broken.
It would install a few things ok, but for the majority of libs it would
just crap out with a Traceback *during installation*. (I had said
before it was gem, what I'd meant was pip.)



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